W henever a government decision goes contrary to what “the people” want, a quick explanation is often offered by some on their side: corruption. “They” — whoever they may be — are “in the pocket of” whoever the decision is …
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The majority of the Sarasota County School Board voted to violate best practices in the state when it came to amending the superintendent’s contract on July 17. No amount of political propaganda by a School Board member filmed in the …
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Sat Aug 4 2018 12:12PM

Editor’s Note: The number for the Let ’em Have It Line is 941-207-1111. Please keep your comments to 200-250 words. Some people are talking several minutes, and we cannot run those comments. They literally would take up half the page …
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It’s been used to defend a neighborhood crime watch volunteer’s fatal confrontation with a black teenager in Central Florida, a shooting inside a Pasco County movie theater and a shooting outside a Miami nightclub. Now Florida’s indefensible “stand your ground’’ …
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So, climate change and global warming. Do you believe it exists? Or not? The scientists do. The current politicos in office don’t. Some of us, who’ve been paying attention to the weather around the world, watching it change drastically over …
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Wed Aug 1 2018 08:20PM

Editor’s Note: The number for the Let ’em Have It Line is 941-207-1111. Please keep your comments to 200-250 words. Some people are talking several minutes, and we cannot run those comments. They literally would take up half the page …
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Politics has never been an arena for the weak of will or stomach, but there were always some constraints. Candidates and their supporters might take things out of context and spin them, but they usually stayed within the general vicinity …
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About a year ago, we here in Florida were hit by one of the strongest hurricanes on record. Irma made landfall on Marco Island on Sept. 13 and wreaked havoc as it roared northward through the state. My wife and …
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Sun Jul 29 2018 01:34PM

Editor’s Note: The number for the Let ’em Have It Line is 941-207-1111. Please keep your comments to 200-250 words. Some people are talking several minutes, and we cannot run those comments. They literally would take up half the page …
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There were 199,944 people who were forced to undergo mental health evaluation through the Baker Act in 2017. There has been a 22 percent increase in the utilization of the Baker Act statewide in the past five years — a …
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Wed Jul 25 2018 11:04AM

Editor’s Note: The number for the Let ’em Have It Line is 941-207-1111. Please keep your comments to 200-250 words. Some people are talking several minutes, and we cannot run those comments. They literally would take up half the page …
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Kudos to the Venice-area restaurants that are trying to make a dent in the amount of plastic going into our landfill and waterways by cutting back on the distribution of single-use straws. To our knowledge, none is banning straws but …
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When I accepted my newsroom internship here at the Gondolier and agreed to spend the summer in Venice, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. An Atlanta native, my only prior experiences in the Sunshine State were …
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Sat Jul 21 2018 03:36PM

Editor’s Note: The number for the Let ’em Have It Line is 941-207-1111. Please keep your comments to 200-250 words. Some people are talking several minutes, and we cannot run those comments. They literally would take up half the page …
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No doubt many Venice residents were glad to learn that on Tuesday the City Council pretty much ended the possibility of levying a fee on them to fund the fire department. While we understand their relief, we think the Council …
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Editor’s Note: The number for the Let ’em Have It Line is 941-207-1111. Please keep your comments to 200-250 words. Some people are talking several minutes, and we cannot run those comments. They literally would take up half the page …
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I’ll confess. I bothered librarians for many years. My mom worked across from the Venice library. I spent many afternoons there, sweaty after running loose after school, waiting for a ride home, reading anything but homework. There’s no way the …
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